2) Phone calls are good, but tend to be boiled down to a “yes” or “no” stance on a particular issue. Calling local/state level offices is more effective as they receive less volume and are slightly more receptive.

3) A handwritten* letter is best of all, but don’t mail it; ever since the never-to-be-solved anthrax attacks of 2001 it takes weeks for snail-mail to get to the Capitol. Instead, write out a brief one-page note, sign it, scan it, and fax it over. If you don’t have access to a fax you can use FaxZero to send 2 free faxes a day, though you’ll need to save the scan as a DOC or PDF. This can be done by opening the scanned image (jpg or etc) in Word, OpenOffice, Acrobat, or etc. and then re-saving it. Then you have a file laying around that can be re-faxed on a daily basis.

*don’t know why, but DC lore says handwritten is best. Presumably because it indicates a greater degree of effort has gone into the communication.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi dialed up the rhetoric before Speaker John Boehner’s plan to raise the debt limit heads to the House floor for a vote, declaring it a “job-killer” and saying seniors could “kiss their Medicare good-bye.”

“If you believe in that the education of our children, the retirement of our seniors, the creation of jobs in a fiscally sound way, you couldn’t possibly vote for the bill that the Republicans are bringing to the floor today,” Pelosi said Thursday.

There is exactly one difference between Reid and Boehner: whether the debt ceiling gets raised in one or two increments. Pelosi wants to draw a distinction that doesn’t exist. The facts aren’t on her side, so she pounds the table.

She talks a good game, but every time she steps up to the podium from here on out I’m just going to hear, “It is clear we must enter an era of austerity” repeated on an endless loop. She failed as a champion of liberals principles: when the Dems had the majority her job was to serve up the caucus for whatever piece of shit compromise Obama was laying out, and now that they don’t she’s irrelevant.

Speaking to a crowd of union workers on Capitol Hill today, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi unloaded on Republican plans to lower the deficit through deep cuts to government services in exchange for raising the debt ceiling. Frustrations are running high in Congress with the default deadline rapidly approaching, and Pelosi spoke with a fire that suggested the endless debate over the debt ceiling is taking its toll on her patience.

“This isn’t just about them saying we should reduce the deficit,” she said, adding: “This is an excuse. The budget deficit is an excuse for the Republicans to undermine government plain and simple. They don’t just want to make cuts, they want to destroy. They want to destroy food safety, clean air, clean water, the department of education. They want to destroy your rights.”

Obama begins speech on debt ceiling impasse at 9pm EST; concludes by suggesting voters call their representatives. Problem: House and Senate offices had already been closed for hours. No problem though — the American people are known for their long memories and perseverant approach to political interaction. I’m sure they’ll call first thing tomorrow.

I’m not familiar with this Corrente dude, though apparently he’s some far-left equivalent of Jim “World’s Stupidest Blogger” Hoft. Browsing around randomly I came across this piece where, apparently under a mistaken belief that he was smart enough to figure out the concept of direct deposit, Señor Dimbulbo declares that a flyer announcing the coming onset of electronic-only payments for social security, veteran’s benefits, etc. is “Worse Than Despicable.”

My neighbor is quite old, in her 80s probably. She has a computer and gets email, but that’s it — no online banking, shopping, etc. She has memory problems, and it’s hard for her to cope with anything more complicated than logging onto AOL. Plus, she doesn’t really trust the internet with her money.

Well then she’ll be thrilled to find out — assuming she stops asking a melodramatic idiot who gets off on scaring old people to translate for her — that the Internet has nothing whatsoever to do with direct deposit, and what’s more she won’t even need to remember to cash the fucking things anymore. Suggestion: don’t post publicly about things you can’t spend 45 seconds looking up. Here is the root Wikipedia result for direct deposit, which directs you to the ACH entry for information specific to direct deposit in the United States. One must read two sentences into the ACH entry to see that it is an electronic debiting system. From there, Hoft Jr. uses his misunderstanding as a springboard to dive into a flight of fancy about how old people who don’t want to “use the internet” to cash their SS checks are being forced into some debit card scheme — which would be fine, except that there are too many charges.

So in summary: having money automatically show up in her account every month is too complicated, but an ATM card is fine as long as withdrawals are free. Sure thing, you fucking idiot.